Department Should Make Public All Information Related to Reviews of Arms Transfers to Israeli Military Units
(Washington, D.C., September 5, 2024) DAWN this week filed a complaint against the State Department in the Federal Court in the District of Columbia to compel it to release documentation related to the "Israel Leahy Vetting Forum" (ILVF), the State Department's unique process for reviewing credible allegations of gross violations of human rights against Israeli security forces.
To date, the State Department has failed to provide documents requested by DAWN under a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the ILVF process and information; the process has never resulted in the disqualification of any unit of the Israeli security forces from receiving U.S. security assistance.
"We know that the State Department has received numerous credible allegations of gross violations of human rights, and yet we also know that through the unique process it has for applying the Leahy Law to Israel, it has never once restricted an Israeli unit from receiving U.S. military assistance," said DAWN Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson. "We believe the documentation in question will demonstrate the double standard the State Department has been applying to Israel to avoid applying Leahy restrictions to Israeli units such as the notorious Netzah Yehudah."
DAWN submitted its first FOIA request to the State Department on May 28th, 2024, seeking documentation related to the formation of, information reviewed by, and debates within, the ILVF over the past six years, including with respect to several high profile violations by the Israeli security forces such as the IDF's killings of U.S. citizens Shireen Abu Akleh and Omar Asad. The requested documents may also include references to Israeli efforts to shut down pending State Department investigations before they could get off the ground.
Former member of the ILVF and current DAWN Senior Advisor Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department over U.S. lethal weapons transfers to Israel in the context of its war on Gaza, is leading DAWN's Leahy Law Implementation Project. Of this suit, he said: "There is no doubt that the State Department is in receipt of multiple credible allegations of gross violations of human rights against Israeli security forces, allegations which it has failed to act upon, in violation of its moral and legal obligations. The documentation DAWN is seeking is patently in the American public interest at this time when the State Department's complicity in the Gaza war is dragging our entire nation down into the mire of Israeli war crimes."
The suit, DAWN v. U.S. Department of State, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and is case 24-cv-2521.
